Thank you so much to Hiu for checking out the book. The Fantasy Inn is a newer blog, but with a team of readers as dedicated as theirs I think they’ll be making waves in the Fantasy fan scene soon, and in the years ahead as well.

Please check out what she’s been doing lately, because frankly a lot of it is amazing. Whether it’s reviewing over 100 SPFBO novels (with ranked spreadsheet) or hosting a colossal giveaway of Discword books, she goes above and beyond what a typical review blog consists of, which I suppose is how all those awards find their way over to her. Thank you so much Esme, for everything!

This is a really exciting one for me. Not only is the Tome and Tankard the first publication to review ANKARAN IMMERSION, but the book got on the right side of Wol from the very beginning and didn’t let up:

What a great start to 2018! Ankaran Immersion is a Cyberpunk adventure set in an intriguing post-Apocalyptic future. The world is partially covered in The Strand – living metal inhabited by seemingly malevolent AIs who are frequently at war with humans and one another. The Strand is a great concept and I have difficulty doing it justice here, but its ability to set traps, shape-shift into giant monsters roaming the land, etc. is thoroughly explored and makes for interesting reading. I found myself very much reminded of Horizon: Zero Dawn (and occasionally The Matrix) throughout the novel, and if you enjoyed the story of that game then this is definitely one for you.

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The world and its characters are well thought out – the world building takes the interesting approach of hinting at what’s going on and letting you fill in the blanks. I think Hunter in particular is extremely well developed, with his autism handled sensitively and sympathetically. Each of the main characters goes through a significant arc and ends up with a rather different outlook than they had at the beginning of the novel. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun to read – filled with clues and easter eggs, I had a great time figuring out Weisser’s hints at how things worked.

To add a bit of fun, Wol’s blog celebrates the notion of settling down with a good book and a good drink (a particularly inviting notion this January, if I do say so). To this end, she invents a custom cocktail for each book she reviews, and the one she came up with for ANKARAN IMMERSION both sounds delicious and is a really funny tease at a certain section of the novel (if you read it you’ll know why). I can’t wait to try it myself, once I make it to the liquor store for a few supplies…and check out her other reviews for some great recipes.

Read the entire review here (including a great summary of the premise for those who like a little more detail than the blurb provides), and learn how to make the cocktail, “Evie’s Bad Trip,” here.

P.S.

It’s been almost eighteen months since Dragon Moon Press acquired ANKARAN IMMERSION and the publishing process began. Since then, I’ve felt that there was something special about this one—that through some strange alchemy of hard work and happenstance this book was going to touch people more deeply than anything I’ve written before. But let’s face it: There’s a limit to how convincing I can be when I talk about how great my own work is. That’s why it’s so gratifying to see others slowly discovering for themselves what I’ve known for so long about Evie, Hunter, and Ono’s story. My deepest gratitude goes to Wol for being the first to help spread the word about it. I don’t expect her to be the last 😉😁.

Unlimited Book Reviews is a book review blog run by author Catherine Griffin which reviews SF&F available free on Kindle Unlimited for Amazon Prime members. You can see her review of AETHERIA’S DAEMON here. Reviews are really helpful for authors, so thank you Catherine for reading and reviewing my book, and please check out her own books if you get the chance.

I’m overwhelmingly delighted to announce the release of Ankaran Immersion, my debut science fiction novel from Dragon Moon Press. You can get it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many other places.

More can and will be said about where this journey into writing has taken me thus far, how I feel now and what lies ahead both for this book and others. For now though I’d just like to thank everyone for supporting me thus far, and I hope you all enjoy the book (you should, it’s pretty awesome).

I’m pleased to announce that Guardbridge Books has published Tales of the Sunrise Lands: Anthology of Fantasy Japan, with one of my stories (“The Three”) included:

Every story in the anthology takes place in a fantasy version of historical Japan. Mine is about a (magical) calligrapher, a warrior monk, and a wandering musician who band together to save a village from a belligerent daimyo. Think of it as a samurai tale in the vein of “Yojimbo” or “Lone Wolf and Cub,” but with a fantasy twist. I haven’t read the others yet, but from the names and descriptions on display I’m expecting some really excellent work.

The biggest news is that ANKARAN IMMERSION is officially in production. I received first pass edits and have been going through the suggestions as well as doing a little tightening of my own while I have the chance. I’m sure when all is said and done I’ll be sick of reading this book, but for now I remain amazed at how well it came together and at the moment I’m super excited to share it with everyone.

Meanwhile, AETHERIA’S DAEMON is out and going strong, and I’d like to thank everyone again for their support in getting it launched. One small bit of news is that it’s entered in the SPFBO, which is a contest run by award-winning fantasy author Mark Lawrence. Given the amount of competition my odds of winning anything are rather slim, but it’s still fun to follow along either on Mark’s site or using the #spfbo hashtag on Twitter, and I’m sure in the end some really awesome books will come to more public attention as they have in previous years.

New(er) work: I completed an outline for a new science fiction novel, with the working title of (big reveal alert) BOUNDARY CONDITION. The book will be similar to ANKARAN IMMERSION in some ways. They’re both science fiction and they’re both a manageable length (~85k words, though obviously I don’t know the exact length of BOUNDARY CONDITION yet). But there are differences: the main characters in BOUNDARY CONDITION are older, the world is utopian and not post-apocalyptic, and a good portion of it takes place in space, which makes it easier to slot into the “classic” sci-fi mode, whereas ANKARAN IMMERSION is much more influenced by anime and the like. It’ll be great!

Hope everyone has a nice summer (or winter for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere and/or Westeros) planned. More news as it comes later.